Bill Evans was one of the most famous and influential jazz pianists of incredible talent and artistry.He did work briefly with Miles Davis and was the pianist on all but one track of 'Kind of Blue' (1959). Along with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, Evans did form the Bill Evans Trio in 1959 - the trio recorded 4 albums: 'Portrait in Jazz' (1959), 'Explorations', 'Sunday at the Village Vanguard', and 'Waltz for Debby' (1961). Bill Evans & Jim Hall formed a jazz duo on two albums: 'Undercurrent' and 'Intermodulation'.

ecm stands for edition of contemporary music, and it's a label based out of munich, germany. their back catalogue spans as far back as 1969 with the release of free at last by pianist Mal Waldron, and even though it's mostly known for releasing jazz recordings, it has also released music from the likes of Steve Reich or Philip Glass. on this post we will focus on their rather interesting series called: :rarum, selected recordings.

the series is focused on allowing the featured artist to create a selection of their own recordings, either as a frontman or sideman. this is done solely to emphasize the input of the artist rather than that of label excecs, and in turn create a more introspective selection of tunes. …